New York City has the highest stress index in the United States, making it the perfect location for MNDFL: the country’s first ever meditation bar. Co-founders Ellie Burrows, a former Hollywood executive, and Lodro Rinzler, author of award-winning “The Buddha Walks Into A Bar,” met at Rinzler’s non-profit Institute for Compassionate Leadership and created the idea over tea.

“As a busy New Yorker, Ellie wanted a non-religious, drop-in meditation studio to go throughout her day that didn’t involve climbing five flights of stairs and sitting in on two hour talks,” explains Rinzler. He had been teaching meditation in New York City for years and had also seen a need for such a space. They hatched MNDFL on the spot that day.

Stephen Wilson Photography

The studio, located in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, was designed with the skeptical and cynical New Yorker in mind. “We made an effort to decouple the hokey spiritual stuff and instead offer simple tools to be more mindful throughout the week,” says Rinzler. They see themselves as a “meditation university” as they offer a wide variety of all-level daily classes as well as rooms to just drop in and meditate on your own.